Pages

Sunday, August 18, 2013

How I Spent My Summer Vacation, 2013 Edition

As I mentioned last week, I had a week's vacation coming from The Job Which Supports My Writing Habit. I was actually able to get a week in the summer for the first time in a few years. And boy did I need it after all of the stuff that's been going on lately. If you read the blog last week you have a general idea of what happened, and that's all I should say about it. "Don't discuss specifics of your job" rules aside, I really don't want to talk about it anymore anyway. So just suffice it to say that I needed a break from the insanity.

Moving on, I spent the first few rainy days loitering around the house, catching up on laundry and tv shows. I bought Michele two seasons of Night Court with Harry Anderson and John Laroquette, and spent my first two days off watching it with her. So many gags on that show that wouldn't get past the censors now. That show isn't politically correct enough to be aired in the 21st century, but it was still funny as hell and I enjoyed watching it. Ah, the 80's... those were the days...

Finally, on Wednesday, the sun was out, and so was I. I cut my grass, under glares of disapproval from my sharp-eyed neighbors, who I often hear under my window in the morning loudly discussing the fact that I don't cut my grass often enough. Of course, we can't all have a landscaper come out once a week to wake up the people who work nights and sleep in in the mornings. Some of us do our own yard work when weather and work schedules allow.

Anyway, I lost my audience when I brought my Harbor Freight machete out of the garage to trim my bushes. My best buddy back in Jersey City had one, and we used to use it every chance we could. Now that I have a house of my own, I took the opportunity to buy one for myself.
Anyway, after a little bit of cutting I looked up, and suddenly everybody was gone. It seems that the sight of a 6'1", 270 lb dude in camo shorts hacking at shrubbery with an oversized knife was enough to make them forgive me my sins and mind their own. Not to mention that swinging that thing is very cathartic, too. For only about 5 bucks, you should try it sometime.

After the yard work was done, I got my cooler out, filled it with ice and drinkables, and did something I've only done a handful of times since we bought this house 6 years ago. I sat aimlessly, in the sun, and relaxed. It was just me, an iPad full of books, and some Smirnoff Ice. Did you know that they make a pineapple flavored one now? Me neither. But I do now, and it is great! When the sun went down, it was Star Trek, Dr. Who, and Farscape on tv. I even got to see the new Superman movie, Man of Steel. I don't want to go all movie critic, so I'll just say that it's nothing like the Salkind films, and leave it at that.

The next few days were pretty much repeat as necessary. And oh yes, it was. I spent more time out in the sun over this past week than I have in years, and I have to say that from here on out I do NOT plan to wait until my vacation weeks to do it again. I know I said I'd given up on the book until after the summer was over, but I managed to clear my head enough to get back to it sooner. Or maybe I just needed the Smirnoff Ice...

Whatever it was this week, it worked for me, and I feel better than I did when I left. Hell, I even managed to write a blog for the second week in a row. :) And I plan, weather permitting, to spend my last day off in the sun before I have to think about going back to that place.

So now that I'm done rambling, what have we learned? I'm going to close this week with my list of:

10 THINGS I LEARNED ON MY SUMMER VACATION

10. That I really needed to get away from The Job Which Supports My Writing Habit after the last few weeks of political correctness gone wrong. As much as I like my job, things were just getting ridiculous.

9. That Smirnoff Ice comes in pineapple flavor. Muhaha...

8. That television was a lot less politically correct in the 80's. And a lot more fun.

7. That I had forgotten how much fun it is to do yard work with a machete. They can be just as effective at pruning trees and bushes as any other gardening tool if you handle it right.

6. That watching a 6'1", 270 lb. dude hacking at bushes with a machete can make even the nosiest neighbor more forgiving of what your yard looks like.

5. That if you haven't tried that Smrinoff Ice Pineapple yet, you really should. It is AWESOME! Just saying... :-)

4. That I have really missed the sun. Sunshine is good for the soul. :-)

3. Did I mention that Smirnoff Ice Pineapple was AWESOME?

2. That I could have been doing all of these things all along, and didn't really need a week off to do them. But it's helped me catch up. :-)

1. The same thing I learn every vacation, Pinky. That one week off is DEFINITELY not enough!

Followers

About Me

“By
day", I work as a supervisor at a transportation company that I’ve been
with for the last 20 years.

In my
free time, I write. With a lot of
rewriting, a story that I wrote back in 1991 under a different title became my
first novel, The Augustine Agenda, which
I finally got published 2010. It was a
quarter-finalist in the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest, and also earned
Honorable Mentions at the 2011 New England Book Festival and the 2011 London
Book Festival.

In
2011, I followed it up with Escape From
Argus, which was another adaptation of an older story. The
Treos Dilemma, is my latest work, is all new material. It was published in February 2012.

My
latest project is a fourth untitled chapter in the Vindicator series, which I’m hoping to have finished by the end of
the year.

Right
now I’m living in Central New Jersey with my wife
Michele and my Mom. They’re my biggest
admirers and my toughest critics.